Tea at Trianon: Traveling with Slaves

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Traveling with Slaves

American Creation quotes Thomas Jefferson:

I have made enquiries on the subject of the negro boy you have brought, and find that the laws of France give him freedom if he claims it, and that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to interrupt the course of the law. Nevertheless I have known an instance where a person bringing in a slave, and saying nothing about it, has not been disturbed in his possession. I think it will be easier in your case to pursue the same plan, as the boy is so young that it is not probable he will think of claiming freedom. (Read more.)

The North Coast said...: While I admire Thomas Jefferson's ideas, I find him to be a vile hypocrite in his personal life, and it is no small thanks to him and other slave-owning champions of "liberty" (their own, that is), that our republic headed down a very destructive path over the next 80 years.

Anyone who thinks that Sally Hemings stayed on with him in France because she wanted to, in spite of surely knowing where she stood in French law, is naive. Jefferson held cards in hand to keep Hemings bound to him that were unbeatable- namely, her children, who were back at his Virginia estate while he was in France. Jefferson, I'm sure, knew he could count on Hemings' love for her children- no normal, loving mother is going to leave her children in slavery while she walks free!

This post you have linked further underscores Jefferson's mendacity, and, in my opinion, his underlying viciousness.; February 25, 2015 at 7:04:00 PM EST